INK REVIEW: BIRMINGHAM PEN COMPANY'S NEW FORMULA TWILIGHT

INK REVIEW:
Birmingham Pen Company Twilight
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Background:

Birmingham Pen Company (BPC) started as the brainchild of two brothers – Nick and Josh. Initially, Nick and Josh worked with third party ink producers in England and Germany to produce their inks. BPC started making their own inks over a year ago. While some changes have been made, their new formulations include:

“Crisp” inks designed for everyday use on all papers,
“Swift” inks that are a bit wetter, starts up quickly and works well on premium papers,
“Rich” inks which have high sheen and saturation,
“Everlasting” inks that have high water resistance,
“Twinkle” inks with shimmer and
“Wishy-Washy” inks that are designed for performance but a washable from fabrics and surfaces.

The glass bottles with tight-fitting plastic lids bottles are very nice and functional. My largest pen fits nicely into the bottle for a full fill. BPC offers three sizes: 30ml, 60ml and 120ml for all inks except the Twinkle inks which are only available in 60ml. The 120ml bottles have an eye-dropper lid instead of the regular lid.

Review in Brief:

Saturation: moderate saturation
Sheen: some nice green sheen
Shading: medium shading from fine to wider nibs
Haloing: low
Lubrication: medium lubrication
Wetness: moderately wet
Water Resistance: Moderately water resistant
Feathering: minimal feathering on lower quality papers
Bleedthrough: minimal only on lower quality papers and with high ink application
Showthrough: medium showthrough on 52gsm TR paper, minimal on Rhodia and Apica
Price: reasonable for 30mls, very good for 60ml and exceptional for 120ml which is the best value.

While some inks retained the same names (or an abbreviated version) of the older versions, they may be slightly different. Ana at the Well Appointed Desk discussed this very well in her January 2021 blog (https://www.wellappointeddesk.com/20...-company-inks/)


For this review, I used the following:

Pens: a Pilot Vanishing Point with a fine nib, and a Conklin Duragraph with a 1.1 stub nib.

Papers shown: Rhodia, Tomoe River, Cosmo Air Light; Not shown: Apica CD Premium, Advantage 24 lb copy paper; Cambridge Premium Notebook paper.

The ink is nicely saturated with some green sheen when pooled. The ink flows wonderfully in both pens. The Pilot VP has a very dry nib and is very particular about the ink it uses. This pen glides effortlessly with this ink. The Conklin Duragraph, on the other hand, is a very wet pen. The Twilight ink is almost too wet to use in this pen. The ink does dry fairly quickly on all papers tested but is slower on Tomoe River and Cosmo Air Light (20-25 seconds).

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The ink is surprisingly quite water resistant although it is not known as an “Everlasting” formulation. For the "Dunk Test", the paper was soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, then allowed to dry.

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Feathering and bleeding are not seen on Rhodia, Tomoe River, Cosmo Air Light. There is some feathering on the 24 lb. copy paper, and minimal feathering on the Apica CD and premium notebook paper, and the three papers showed small amounts bleedthrough in heavy applications of the ink. Because this is a fairly saturated ink, there is showthrough on Tomoe River, Rhodia and Apica as well as the copy and notebook papers, especially with the 1.1 stub nib.

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Tomoe River Ivory Paper

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Cosmo Air Light

The chromatography was simply done with a coffee filter. It shows how the ink color breaks down in to a complex variety of yellow, blue and red.

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Here are some color comparisons:

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Overall this is a very nice ink that behaves very well. It is relatively easy to clean out of my pens and converters. Please note, however, that I clean my pens frequently and do not let ink sit in a pen too long nor let ink dry in a pen.

I highly recommend giving this ink a try.

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink directly from Birmingham Pen Company. Any photos, opinions and thoughts regarding the ink are my own and are not sponsored by Birmingham Pen Company and do not necessarily reflect their opinions.

Lovely review - and I appreciated the overview to start with.

This is a colour I wouldn't normally be drawn to, but you've made it look very appealing indeed - so much so it's gone on the list!

Thank you :)

Thank-you for the lovely review DrPenfection. This reminds me very much of an ink I use a lot of, J Herbin Poussiere de Lune. I used to buy it in the 100ml bottles before Covid.

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Originally Posted by mizgeorge

Lovely review - and I appreciated the overview to start with.

This is a colour I wouldn't normally be drawn to, but you've made it look very appealing indeed - so much so it's gone on the list!

Thank you :)

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Thank you for your kind words. To be honest, I originally thought this ink to have more of a purple tone to it. When it arrived I wasn't sure if I would like. But it has really grown on me. And because it is not only more water resistant, but surprisingly easy to clean out of my pens, it is definitely on my "A" list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by junglejim

Thank-you for the lovely review DrPenfection. This reminds me very much of an ink I use a lot of, J Herbin Poussiere de Lune. I used to buy it in the 100ml bottles before Covid.

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Thank you very much!

Elegant, lovely review. Thanks Dr. P. :thumb:
Enjoyed the quotes, texts and the lovely shading.....

Great review. Thank you. :) It's on my list for my next trip.....

Great, informative, detailed review! Very appreciated! And I envy people who get huge bottles of ink--I haven't finished any yet (maybe because I buy too many). I really enjoy the aesthetics of Birmingham--the orders I have received are wonderfully packaged with notes on cork cards.

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Originally Posted by damfino

Great, informative, detailed review! Very appreciated! And I envy people who get huge bottles of ink--I haven't finished any yet (maybe because I buy too many). I really enjoy the aesthetics of Birmingham--the orders I have received are wonderfully packaged with notes on cork cards.

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Thank you so much! Truthfully, this was my second order from BPC. I was very impressed with the way this order was packaged. I am especially impressed with the speed of shipping. Most packages coming from the east coast take a week or two to arrive here. But this came within days. And I have been very impressed with and appreciate their excellent customer service. I have already ordered several more bottles.

Regarding ordering large bottles of ink, I am basically a miser. When I purchase something, if I can get a greater quantity for just a little more, I will. So when BPC offers twice the amount for just a few dollars more, I will buy the great quantity. And since I write almost all of my work notes, I journal, doodle and sketch, I do use my ink.